Olympics
SCANDAL! CORRUPTION CHARGES UNFOLDS IN TOKYO 2020 OLYMPICS
BY LIAM MORGAN AT THE HOTEL ALAGARE IN LAUSANNE
Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) President Tsunekazu Takeda has reportedly been indicted on charges of corruption in France linked to Tokyo’s successful bid for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
According to leading French newspaper Le Monde, Takeda, a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and who led the Tokyo 2020 bid, is suspected of authorising the payment of bribes in order to help the Japanese capital secure the hosting rights for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The 71-year-old, born the third son of Prince Tsuneyoshi Takeda and who is the great-grandson of the Emperor Meiji, who ruled Japan from 1867 until his death in 1912, was indicted by the national financial prosecutor’s office in Paris last month, Reuters reported.
Takeda, however, has denied the report.
“I have not been indicted,” Takeda told Japanese agency Kyodo News.
“No restrictions have been placed upon me.
“We have heard nothing new from the investigative team.
“It is extremely unfortunate if things untrue are reported.”
In a statement, the IOC Ethics Commission, which is holding a meeting here today, had opened a file on Takeda but claimed the Japanese official “continues to enjoy the full presumption of innocence”.
Takeda is being
investigated for “active corruption”, according to Le
Monde, regarding payments worth $2 million (£1.5 million/€1.75
million) made to Singaporean company Black Tidings before Tokyo was awarded the
2020 Olympics and Paralympics at the IOC Session in Buenos Aires in 2013.
The account holder has been closely tied to Papa Massata Diack, son of the disgraced former International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) President Lamine Diack, currently being held in France and facing corruption charges.
It is alleged the payments were directed to the elder Diack, with authorities in France suspecting corruption or money laundering by an unknown person.
Tokyo, the winner of the first round of the 2020 vote, defeated Istanbul by 60 votes to 36 in the second ballot.
Madrid were eliminated in the first round.
An investigation team, established by the JOC, cleared Tokyo 2020 in September 2016 over the controversial payment, dismissing allegations it was used as a bribe as Lamine Diack was a voting IOC member at the time of the vote.
Takeda was questioned by Japanese prosecutors in 2017 in relation to the payments.
“I cooperated at a hearing with the investigators in charge,” Takeda, who denied allegations money had been linked to bribery, told Kyodo News.
“Such a thing is unthinkable.”
Today’s revelation, however, still represent another considerable blow to the IOC and Tokyo 2020, who have denied any wrongdoing contributed to their triumph.
“The IOC is ‘partie civile’ in this investigation and has been in close contact with the French judicial authorities,” the IOC said in its statement.
“The IOC Ethics Commission has opened a file and will continue to monitor the situation – and is meeting today.
“Mr Takeda continues to enjoy the full presumption of innocence.
“These allegations refer to events before the IOC introduced far reaching reforms.
“With the reforms of Olympic Agenda 2020 the IOC reinforced its code of ethics and introduced an approved list of consultants.
“In order to be on the list the consultants have to declare that they respect the strict IOC rules on governance and ethics, and in particular anti-corruption.
“Candidate cities can only hire consultants that are on the list.
“As for the former President of the IAAF, Mr Diack no longer holds any position within the IOC.
“In 2015, the IOC provisionally suspended Mr Diack who then within 24 hours himself resigned as an honorary member.
“We continue to keep close contact with the judiciary authorities and the IOC President has even sent a letter to the President of Senegal to ask him for full cooperation, something to which President Macky Sall agreed.”
Tickets for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games will go on sale to the general public on April 9, organisers said on Monday, as LA28 also moved to reassure fans over ticket security by naming a group of verified resale platforms that will begin operating in 2027.
A presale for residents in qualifying areas of Los Angeles and Oklahoma City will begin on April 2, with notification emails for selected buyers set to roll out from March 31 through April 4, LA28 said.
On April 7, the organising committee will notify remaining registrants whether they were selected for a purchase window in the first general sales round, known as Drop 1.
“This week marks the first opportunity for fans to claim a seat at the LA28 Olympic Games,” LA28 Chief Executive Officer Reynold Hoover said in a statement.
LA28’s ticketing programme will include 1 million tickets priced at $28, the lowest price point. Roughly 5% of the Olympic tickets will cost over $1,000, while more than 75% of all tickets, including finals, will be under $400 and nearly 50% of all tickets will be under $200.
“Tickets are comparable to and in many cases well under what we see for other professional sporting and major entertainment events in the U.S.,” Allison Katz-Mayfield, LA28 Senior Vice President, Games Delivery Revenue, told reporters on a call.
RESALE PROGRAMME
Separately, LA28 said its verified multi-platform resale programme would open in 2027, with AXS and Eventim serving as the official secondary ticket marketplace and Ticketmaster and Sports Illustrated Tickets also designated as verified resale platforms.
The announcement comes as organisers prepare for the first ticket drop and seek to warn fans against buying from unauthorised sellers before the resale programme launches.
LA28 said primary tickets would only be sold through its official ticket service providers, AXS and Eventim. It added that any LA28 tickets offered for resale before 2027 should not be considered verified.
“While LA28’s resale platforms will not be launched until 2027, having a variety of platforms was critical to providing fans multiple points of access to verified tickets,” Hoover said.
LOCAL PRESALE
Fans who registered for the LA28 ticket draw and whose billing postal codes fall within qualifying counties were automatically entered into the local presale draw. Those selected will receive 48-hour purchase windows running from April 2 through April 6 and must use a payment method tied to a billing postal code in an eligible county to complete their purchase.
For both the local presale and Drop 1, selected buyers will have 48 hours to purchase tickets, while any tickets placed in a cart must be checked out within 30 minutes. Buyers may complete multiple transactions during their allotted window until they reach the ticket limit.
LA28 said tickets would be available across all Olympic sports, as well as for the opening ceremony at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood and the closing ceremony at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Fans selected for time slots may buy up to 12 tickets for Olympic events, plus up to 12 tickets for the soccer tournament that will not count toward the general Olympic-event limit. Ceremony tickets will be capped at four per buyer and will count towards the 12-ticket maximum.
Registrants who are not assigned a time slot in either the local presale or Drop 1 will be automatically entered into future draws, LA28 said. Paralympic tickets are due to go on sale in 2027.
Ticket-inclusive hospitality packages from official provider On Location are also expected to go on sale in April. Visa will be the official payment method for purchases.
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Organizers of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic and Paralympic Games unveiled the event’s official visual identity on Monday, a floral-themed design system meant to reflect the city’s landscape, neighbourhoods and cultural character.
The branding will appear across competition venues, fan areas, citywide installations, signage, digital platforms and broadcast presentations during the Games, LA28 said.
At the centre of the design is the “Superbloom,” a reference to the bursts of wildflowers that can blanket parts of Southern California after periods of rain.
LA28 said the concept was intended as a metaphor for the Games, with years of preparation culminating in a short, high-profile global event.
The core graphic is built around 13 individual blooms, which organizers said represent different elements of Los Angeles, from its entertainment culture to its neighbourhoods, people and native landscape.
The colour palette draws on the Bird of Paradise, the official flower of Los Angeles, and is grouped into four families – Poppy, Scarlet Flax, Bluebell and Sagebrush – to evoke the region’s terrain and vegetation.
Organizers said the typographic style was inspired by Los Angeles street signage, including strip mall and hand-painted storefront lettering, in an effort to give the identity a distinctly local feel.
LA28 said the design was developed to work across a wide range of settings, from nearly century-old venues to new facilities, while also accounting for broadcast requirements, digital formats and lighting conditions. The organising committee partnered with design studio Koto on the project.
The identity was unveiled more than two years before the Olympic opening ceremony in what organizers described as an unusually early rollout, allowing partners and stakeholders more time to incorporate the branding into their materials.
Los Angeles will host the Olympics for a third time in 2028, after staging the Games in 1932 and 1984. It will also host the Paralympics for the first time.
-Reuters
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Organisers of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics said on Monday that registration for the first ticket draw will close on March 18, as the Games begin to take shape with the first baseball qualifiers confirmed and the soccer tournament schedule expanded.
More than five million fans from 197 countries and territories have registered at tickets.la28.org since January for a chance to buy tickets, LA28 said, underscoring strong early demand for the Summer Games, which are due to open on July 14, 2028.
Fans who register by the March 18 deadline will be eligible for a lottery to receive a purchase window for the first ticket release, scheduled for April 9-19.
There will also be a local presale running from April 2-6 for eligible residents in parts of Southern California and Oklahoma. Oklahoma City will host softball and canoe slalom.
LA28 said selected applicants would be notified by email between March 31 and April 7. Fans picked for the first sale window will be able to buy up to 12 tickets for Olympic events, subject to availability, with a four-ticket cap for each of the opening and closing ceremonies.
BASEBALL RETURNS
The ticketing update comes as the first teams booked places in the Olympic baseball tournament through the 2026 World Baseball Classic. The Dominican Republic and Venezuela secured qualification spots from the Americas, joining host United States in the six-team field.
Baseball, one of the sports added to the LA28 programme, will return to the Olympics for the first time since the Tokyo Games and will be played at Dodger Stadium from July 13-19. The remaining three places will be decided through international qualifying tournaments in 2027 and 2028.
LA28 also confirmed that the Olympic soccer tournament will begin on July 10, four days before the opening ceremony, following a decision by the International Olympic Committee Executive Board to extend the competition window.
Organisers said the longer schedule would give teams two additional rest days compared with previous Games.
Group-stage and quarter-final matches will be staged in seven U.S. cities – New York, Columbus, Nashville, St. Louis, San Jose, San Diego and Pasadena – with the men’s and women’s gold medal matches to be played at the Rose Bowl.
LA28 said kickoff times and the full schedule would be released later this year.
-Reuters
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